Games you don't like, but respect

[alik44]

I'm going to have to say The COD modern warfare series. i give the series when it comes to the single player story and its memorable characters. and even as the series progressed it single player still can tell at least a competent and well writing plot to it. the downside to this is as the series goes on cod is starting to care less and less about its story and more about its endlessly expanding multiplayer with little to no regards to the story.

 

[Toastie058]

Silent Hill series.

I've briefly dabbled in 1 or 2 of them at various points in time and wasn't ever drawn in.

I actually found reading wiki pages about the various plots and story lines, and watching the cut scenes much more enjoyable.

 

[Trull]

I hate to say it but...Grand Theft Auto.

Yeah, I said it. I was a teenager when the whole "Hot Coffee" mod was discovered, which created controversy and a bad taste in my mouth, but I never could understand the appeal of the general premise behind it. It just never appealed to me to be a criminal, even if it is a game with huge acclaim. I own GTA IV but never started it up. Wish I could like them too.

I hate GTA games, they're so boring. I respect how well made the games are and how each installment helps further gaming. However, it just isn't thrilling for me. Oddly, without GTA, there would be no Red Dead Redemption, which is my favorite game.

You two, if you haven't, play the games. Yes, they are ultimately about crime, but the storylines are about overcoming a WORSE life, and become a better human being (albeit still breaking laws). In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, it's actually the Police AND FBI who's breaking the law, and screwing over 3 different cities, and the protagonist pretty much saves them from riots and other things like that.

EDIT: Answering the original question,
Morrowind. I tried to install mods to make it playable, but by jove it was a chore to finish.

 

[Sixcess]

Half Life - the gameplay is as clunky as any other late 90s shooter, and the bad platforming and insta-kill environmental hazards do their best to ruin otherwise excellent level design, but despite that I respect it for being the prototype of Valve's story telling techniques, and for being perhaps the first FPS to try to make its levels feel like real places rather than abstract mazes.

 

[iseko]

I hate to say it but...Grand Theft Auto.

Yeah, I said it. I was a teenager when the whole "Hot Coffee" mod was discovered, which created controversy and a bad taste in my mouth, but I never could understand the appeal of the general premise behind it. It just never appealed to me to be a criminal, even if it is a game with huge acclaim. I own GTA IV but never started it up. Wish I could like them too.

I agree. This was going to be the one I said too. Ever since GTA III came out I couldn't stomach the game. Also because, I like the idea of a sandbox game where you can do 'anything' a criminal does. But I don't really like the mechanics. You can race with a car but the car tends to drive like shit. You can start shooting people but handling a gun (again) feels like shit. They try do so much in one game that they fail at everything IMHO.

Still, I can understand the appeal behind it for other people.

 

[Excelsior789]

I'm gonna go with Dark Souls and/or Demon's Souls. After playing a bit of each I can say that they are very well made games and the developers very clearly didn't let mass appeal or silly things like that get in the way of what they were trying to achieve with the games.

 

[Strazdas]

See, the greatest lauding I can give to EVE is also the thing that makes me stay right the fuck away from it; it's player driven. Give players that much power, and they turn into monsters with morals that would make a mongol raider puke and the most hardbitten gang banger grimace. Playing this game as a new player is like walking into a general pop prison yard wearing a sign that says "Hey! I rape children and snitch to cops!" Unless you're already set with the more powerful corporations and have contacts to make sure you're not among their cannon fodder from the get go, you are not a player in EVEonline, you are a VICTIM, you are meat to be fed to the established powers. No thanks.

of only new players woulnt expect gaem to hold their hand and stop being gulible and believe everything anyone tells them there would be no such problems. i came into it blind and i never got tricked by other players. why? because i used my brains.

Now on topic.
Mirror's edge. It was an experiment with different game style. a failed experiment but still an experiment, and gaming definitely need more of these. no prototype is perfect, but the idea is already out there.

Spore. The premise soudned awesome. create your own race and move from its infancy to space exploration. this sounds like the best game ever. and then i tried it. the cellular stage was the most interesting part of it. other stages work like a bad comedy sketches of other games and skip large leaps, not to mention that they are infinatelly too short. space age, well, its challenging, for first 5 minutes till you learn to trade. then its nothing but annoying (omg this planet is in danger) every 5 minutes. i ended up installing a mod that remove them just so i can fly more than 4 planets further than the planet i just saved till it gets attacked again.
now im waiting for someone to make a game that spore promised to be, except this time - playable.

Crysis. its a landmark graphic achievement. they are pushing the hardware forward. but as a game.... its fun ride for one time (game is 4 hours long, come on), but i woulnt want to do it again.
Funny story with crysis, its optimization is awesome. that was the only game from that year i could run on "high" settings with the laptop. Nvidia ftw.

Half-life. it its the epitome of FPS according to some, and i really respect it for trying to make FPS genre more than doom (yes i hate doom), but i tried playing it twice, it just does not make me happy.

 

[Angie7F]

Silent Hill series.

I've briefly dabbled in 1 or 2 of them at various points in time and wasn't ever drawn in.

I actually found reading wiki pages about the various plots and story lines, and watching the cut scenes much more enjoyable.

I too never played the Silent Hill series but read the story for entertainment.

Also, I personally never understood Pokemon.
However I respect it for the large following and marketing they were able to carry out.

 

[hazabaza1]

Deus Ex.
Plays like shit, looks like shit, animates like shit, sounds like shit, but I can see its influence and respect just how deep it was.

 

[Sacman]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

It's a great game which I'm sure a lot of people like (not to mention it's GORGEOUS with that amber-and-black color scheme), but I just can't stomach that kind of trial-and-error gameplay.

Wat? Deus Ex, just the entire design philosophy, behind all of the games, is the complete opposite of trial and error, seeing as how it stresses organic problem solving with every situation and problem having multiple solutions, and prided itself on catering to the players prefered approach and playing style... other than the boss fights there's basically no part of the game, other than the occasional, have to hack door, that trapped the player and forced them to play the game it's way, I mean, everything from the level design, to character building and resource management was completely up to the player...<.>

OT: ICO... I can look back and say I liked it honestly, well most of it... the game was a beautiful piece of art on every level, excpet the gameplay, which was full of escort mission type frustration... but like I said, I'm glad I played it, and looking back it was still a good experience...<.<

 

[Simple Bluff]

Gonna have to say Spec Ops.

I respect what it does (not tries to do, does), but...eh, just doesn't do it for me; depends on the way you approach all games I guess.

I'm incredibly surprised more people haven't said this. As soon as I saw the thread title, it was the first thing that came to mind. I mean (and I know they did this on purpose), the gameplay was horrible. And this is coming from someone who doesn't hate third person cover based shooters (although, that might be because I haven't really played that many). There were some parts of the game where I felt they were starting to labour the damn point too - like the first part of the helicopter section, where Walker INSISTS you strafe the radio tower until the the whole thing collapses. I had only tore down half of freaking Dubai at this point, I GET that I'm supposed to hate myself for enjoying FPSs now.
That said...

the downside to this is as the series goes on cod is starting to care less and less about its story and more about its endlessly expanding multiplayer with little to no regards to the story.

Have you played Blops 2 yet? The single player campaign is very well done in my opinion. Branching storylines, and the earlier choices in the game were executed REALLY well. And the narrative itself is interesting in its own right... mostly, anyway. Of course, the game is still VERY multiplayer focused, but Treyarch made a very visible effort and its turned out to be my personal faveorite campaign of the series since COD 4.
/grovelling.

 

[juyunseen]

Bioshock. I know how important it is, I know how good its supposed to be, and I know how much everyone loves it, but I can't enjoy it. Your character feels like he lumbers around and it just doesn't feel right to me.

 

[Korenith]

I'm going to have to say Elder Scrolls as well. In theory I love the concept, the detail and effort involved and I particularly liked the way Morrowind didn't hold your hand in the whole trying to locate stuff by plonking a bloody great "go here" sign on all objectives but ultimately the gameplay side of things just let it down so much for me that I couldn't force myself to carry on despite my interest in the world.

 

[0986875533423]

Assassin's Creed.

Perhaps I'd like them more if I played ACII (which I have heard is better) but I doubt it. I could definitely see from what I played of the first game that the mechanics were innovative and well polished and ought to have been fun but ultimately they just weren't and my problem with the story was that I didn't care. Nolan North made Desmond unlikeable, the cliched components of the story (if not the story itself) made the plot unlikeable, and basically being a retroclone of Desmond in far-past Damascus made Altair unlikeable. Not to mention the setting bored me to tears. I hate that period of history and the renaissance isn't much better. AC3 looks like it has the best context so if I could somehow get brought up to speed on the story so far and just play that one, I might.

Regardless, the series is incredibly popular and evidently brought a lot to the table and I can respect that. I just don't want to bore myself to death playing it.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Team Fortress 2 - The insane amount of support for that game is unreal, too bad it was a boring game even before all the hat nonsense. I tried to get into it just because of how well it was supported (and had it from The Orange Box anyway), but just couldn't.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Black Ops 1. Favourite FPS I've played, but its a CoD so I don't respect it.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I've never liked HL2 but I respect how important it is for video games.

Uncharted series is another bunch of games that I don't really like but I know they are good and see how they could appeal to others.

 

[G-Slice]

Yknow, I love the MoBa series in general and I really respect League for bringing a lot more to the genre in variety. But I just can't play it, I am a hardcore HoN (Heroes of Newerth) player and I find it much more fast paced and the gameplay feels much more rewarding and skill-dependent. I feel regardless of the role if you are a skilled player you can achieve anything, and in addition to this it has a much more flexible meta and there are many more strategies and available options towards winning the game. Same with DoTa 2, respect beyond belief but I just can't play it.

 

[AT God]

I have to say Skyrim, the game is very well made and deserves the praise it got, but they did such a terrible job making it fun. I guess if I was stuck playing console games it might have been great but PC offers much more fun open world games.

Bethesda allowing Steam Workshop really makes me respect them more, but I can't get over some of the dynamics.

My other main one is Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I grew up playing Majora's Mask on the N64, never did get OOT for some reason. Since MM was newer, I never enjoyed playing the older game. I recently played through OOT on a gamecube and while I understand how it was groundbreaking, it was hard to get through. Majora's Mask is even more confusing with the weird 3-Day time limit but I just can't get back in to OOT.

 

[Soxafloppin]

The Gran Turismo games. You can appreciate the quality but there not very accessible for the average gamer.